Europe's ATV To Launch No Earlier Than September

Testing issues in Russia and continued uncertainty over the date of NASA's next space shuttle launch have pushed back the first flight of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to September at the earliest, and perhaps to November.

The European Space Agency (ESA) originally had hoped to launch the Jules Verne - its pathfinder ATV - to the International Space Station (ISS) this summer. Now it appears that will be the earliest it will be possible to ship the vehicle to the European launch site near Kourou, French Guiana.

Launch of the ATV in turn drives the launch of ESA's Columbus pressurized laboratory module, since managers don't want to send up Columbus on a space shuttle until ATV has flown on its Ariane 5 launch vehicle.

Wish them luck. Hopefully they get it right the first time. That's hard to do.